Blue, White, Red, or Some Other Color?

[Beastie]

7 hours ago, David in FL said:

Interesting. I’ve been playing golf for over 50 years, all over the world, and I can’t remember even one time when I didn’t have a choice of tees.

Traditional clubs here in the UK would have White Medal tees only used for competitions. Next would be regular ( normally yellow) tees for casual play and visitors. Then red for the ladies.  
 

This is being phased out generally with most clubs allowing members to play from which ever tees they wish, but competitions still specify which tees to be used. The senior comps are off the whites or yellows, the men’s off the whites or (for the biggest competitions ie club championship) the blues( tips). I’ve never played a competition in the UK where there is a choice of tees. 

[djake]

When I play courses that have multiple tee boxes and you can tell the course is designed that each tee box presents a different challenge, I really enjoy changing it up during a round.

On courses like that there are holes where playing from the tips is easier then the forward tees.  Plus the differing tee boxes can show the architecture of each hole so uniquely different.  

I enjoy hitting from all of the tee markers.  I always default to what the people in my group want to play from.  But there are holes where I will ask the group if I can hit from the tips or even go all the way forward because of the uniqueness of the challenge. 

 

[David in FL]

1 hour ago, Beastie said:

Traditional clubs here in the UK would have White Medal tees only used for competitions. Next would be regular ( normally yellow) tees for casual play and visitors. Then red for the ladies.  
 

This is being phased out generally with most clubs allowing members to play from which ever tees they wish, but competitions still specify which tees to be used. The senior comps are off the whites or yellows, the men’s off the whites or (for the biggest competitions ie club championship) the blues( tips). I’ve never played a competition in the UK where there is a choice of tees. 

Tournament play is different.  The OP is talking about casual play amongst buddies.

It’s worth mentioning, even in a lot of tournaments, I see split used. The handicap system can adjust quite nicely for that as well.

5 hours ago, leftybutnotPM said:

Not saying I don't like the idea of different tees, but the way an 80 year old competes with a 24 year old is with handicap - not a head start on every hole.

In other parts of the world, oftentimes both.

[CharlieB]

Some people play from the tips who shouldn’t, and these same people would score much better, play faster if they would leave the driver home, play a 3 metal from the whites. I guess the lure of that one 300 yard drive in a few rounds continues to lure them on to shooting high scores.

[iacas]

54 minutes ago, djake said:

On courses like that there are holes where playing from the tips is easier then the forward tees.

I know what you mean but that's also never really the case, because you can always hit a shorter club to hit to exactly the same area (with more accuracy) than you could from the back tees.

[ncates00]

30 minutes ago, CharlieB said:

play faster if they would leave the driver home

This is isn't true.  3w isn't some magical club that is always better than the driver.  Truth be told, if you're bad at driver, you're probably bad with 3w; you just get away with having a bit more loft on the club.  But a bad swing is a bad swing, regardless of the club you're holding.

Everyone should learn to hit driver to reap the benefits it has.  

On to tee selection, play any tee you want.  However, I'd like to see places do like Chambers Bay does.  They have tees and recommendations in coordination with how far you hit your driver.  I don't recall the exact yardages, but they have tees set up something like: if you hit your driver 175, 200, 225, 250, 275+.  I think that's a pretty good way to help golfers choose the appropriate tee, assuming the golfer has a grip on the reality of how far they hit their driver...

[CharlieB]

Tiger Woods went through a long period where all he did was hook his driver. During those years he almost always hit a 3 wood off the tee. The guy I’m talking about has the same problem, but he can hit his 3 wood dead straight 250 yards. He is a bogey player and has no business playing from the pro’s tees. JMHO

[leftybutnotPM]

2 hours ago, CharlieB said:

The guy I’m talking about has the same problem, but he can hit his 3 wood dead straight 250 yards. He is a bogey player and has no business playing from the pro’s tees. JMHO

What a load of BS.

"Can" hit his 3 wood dead straight 250 yards. The question is DOES he? You may as well say he CAn hole 50 foot putts.

A golfer who hits (not "can hit") his 3 wood 250 yards dead straight is not a bogey golfer.

[iacas]

16 minutes ago, leftybutnotPM said:

What a load of BS.

"Can" hit his 3 wood dead straight 250 yards. The question is DOES he? You may as well say he CAn hole 50 foot putts.

A golfer who hits (not "can hit") his 3 wood 250 yards dead straight is not a bogey golfer.

My thoughts exactly.

I'm a +1 and I can't hit my 3W 250 and straight… every time.

[CharlieB]

Ok, probably an overstatement. He hits his 3 wood a long ways and pretty controlled. His short game is not that good, thus the 85 to mid 90’s scores. Why would he be better off playing from the tips with his erratic driver?

[leftybutnotPM]

4 hours ago, CharlieB said:

Ok, probably an overstatement. He hits his 3 wood a long ways and pretty controlled. His short game is not that good, thus the 85 to mid 90’s scores. Why would he be better off playing from the tips with his erratic driver?

My view is that one of the most inaccurate "truths" for casual golfers is that a 3 wood is more accurate than a driver. A player with a poor swing has a lot less chance of hitting the centre of the face of a 3 wood than somewhere near the middle of a 460cc driver.  Shallow faced 3 woods have a pretty small hitting area and are as easy to snap hook, sky or cut as a driver, but with less forgiveness and a LOT less distance.

So the paradox is that the player who needs the control of the 3 wood can't hit it that well, which is why he might want to, as he can't trust his driver swing. The pros hit 3 woods to control DISTANCE, not accuracy most of the time.

Everyone hits drives that are pushed but still go a decent way but feel horrible and you look at the clubface and realise that with a 3 wood or a circa 1980 wooden driver it'd be close to an air swing.

Edited October 27, 2019 by leftybutnotPM

[tehuti]

Based on my current handicap I should be playing courses of < 6,000 yards. If that means moving up, that’s what I SHOULD do. However it often depends on who I am paired up with.

[Rkrider99]

These are the recommendations from a course we just played last week -

 

[Darkfrog]

I believe that a golfer should play from whichever tee box will give them the greatest enjoyment of the game. My friend's fiancee who is new to the game will often tee off in the fairway in front of the most forward tees because this makes the game more fun for her.

I play the middle tees at my home course which has three tee boxes; blue (back), white (middle), red (forward). When playing a new, or different course, I usually pick a tee box somewhere in the middle as well. I often golf as a single, and if I'm paired with a group playing from tees further back than I normally play, sometimes I'll join them depending on my mood.

I select a tee box based on the rated difficulty rather than distance (exception being extremely long layouts). At my home course, on certain holes the back tees add an additional challenge to the hole aside from being longer, like a different angle or elevation, which can add some interest to the round.

[Mr22putt]

On 10/26/2019 at 1:58 PM, CharlieB said:

The guy I’m talking about has the same problem, but he can hit his 3 wood dead straight 250 yards. He is a bogey player and has no business playing from the pro’s tees. JMHO

LMAO

On 10/26/2019 at 10:37 PM, leftybutnotPM said:

My view is that one of the most inaccurate "truths" for casual golfers is that a 3 wood is more accurate than a driver. A player with a poor swing has a lot less chance of hitting the centre of the face of a 3 wood than somewhere near the middle of a 460cc driver.  Shallow faced 3 woods have a pretty small hitting area and are as easy to snap hook, sky or cut as a driver, but with less forgiveness and a LOT less distance.

So the paradox is that the player who needs the control of the 3 wood can't hit it that well, which is why he might want to, as he can't trust his driver swing. The pros hit 3 woods to control DISTANCE, not accuracy most of the time.

Everyone hits drives that are pushed but still go a decent way but feel horrible and you look at the clubface and realise that with a 3 wood or a circa 1980 wooden driver it'd be close to an air swing.

This.

IMO....a 460 CC is so much more forgiving to hit with a much larger sweet spot vs a 3W.

I've choked down a bit on my driver to increase better ball contact and ball shot consistency.

[Darkfrog]

11 minutes ago, Mr22putt said:

This.

IMO....a 460 CC is so much more forgiving to hit with a much larger sweet spot vs a 3W.

I've choked down a bit on my driver to increase better ball contact and ball shot consistency.

100%. I have a friend who tees off with a 5-iron because he "can't hit his driver". So he ends up having to hit a fairway wood or hybrid in to most greens after a 160-170 yard tee shot, and never even has a chance to go for a par 5 in two. And any mishit off the tee and he's toast. But he swears that it's good strategy because putting and short game "save him".

That said, from personal experience, sometimes I have days when I cannot for the life of me get comfortable standing over a tee shot with my driver, and this leads to all sorts of bad things. I admit this is a mental issue rather than physical but I haven't completely shaken it yet. On those days I take a 5-wood or hybrid off the tee because I don't get in my head with these clubs.

[Mr22putt]

4 minutes ago, Darkfrog said:

100%. I have a friend who tees off with a 5-iron because he "can't hit his driver". So he ends up having to hit a fairway wood or hybrid in to most greens after a 160-170 yard tee shot, and never even has a chance to go for a par 5 in two. 

And let's not forget about the 5 iron tee shots of your friend that only went 150-160 yards because he chunked the shot.....a fat shot is common among casual golfers.

I'm lucky....I'm really confident with my driver.....but I also play a 12* driver and choke down a bit to really help with proper ball contact...which is so important.

I just bought a used M2 two months ago and my confidence has increased even more......even on a short par 4...I'll hit driver......I'm more confident hitting my driver vs. 4W off the tee on short par 4's.

[rehmwa]

I still see a few score cards that actually say "Ladies" or something of the sort.  It's idiotic and needs to stop.  Or there's 4 sets on the top of the card, and then another 1 or 2 on the bottom - seriously?  why?  Just stack them up longest to shortest.  Leave the ego, or the chauvinism or whatever drives that thing somewhere else....or just ignore it....

I suspect a lot of courses like that might very well just have a huge inventory of old score cards to burn through......

For that matter, colors don't all follow the same pattern (White/Black/Green/Blue/Gold/Read whatever) between different courses.  One course white is longest, another Blue or Black (or platinum gold or silver) might be.....or the tees won't even be colors, they'll be named.

If I'm playing a new course - I'll look at the total yards - cross check the par 3's to see if they did something wierd (i don't want to play four 240+ yard P3's just to get my yardage in - and then pick the yardage that I think I 'feel' like playing that day.  The last thing I check is the color that goes with that yardage.  If I'm really paying attention, I might check the slope/ratings, but that doesn't really figure into it - I pick my yardage only - I don't mind any other variation involved.

Also - it's fun to play the same course but to change up the tees played.  There are cool things and surprises in there when the course is designed well.  On some days, it'll get really wierd and I'll look at each individual hole and play whatever tee suits my fancy or practice plan (not often though)

So if someone asks which tees to play, leave the card alone and ask them what total yards they want.  Only once they answer do you pull the card, then just play whatever is closest to that.  If they twitch because it's the 'red' tees, then you have something to tease them about during the round.

On 10/26/2019 at 8:40 AM, David in FL said:

It’s worth mentioning, even in a lot of tournaments, I see split used. The handicap system can adjust quite nicely for that as well.

It's funny - I played yesterday and chose on the first tee to play split green/black.  Black is normally at my top comfort at 6800, but green is 6400.  But it was cold and the last day open - the split is a little over 6500-----PERFECT for me pretty much in any temp.

Joke's on me.  Since it's was the last day open, they closed a few boxes and the entire day black = green.....I'm going to claim I played all black now after the fact.....(it was a mix of the short and long - I think the net result was close to mix vs either of them)

Edited October 28, 2019 by rehmwa